August 5, 2014

Migaki Nishin/身欠きにしん

The other day, I got one pack of migaki nishin (fully dried) at a bargain price: 180 yen per 100 g. Fully dried migaki nishin usually costs around 300 yen per 100 g. Migaki nishin is dried herring (beheaded, gutted, and dried, but not salted). There are three types of migaki nishin:

Hon boshi (fully dried), dried for one month or so

Hachibu (nanabu) boshi (semi-dried), dried for one week or so
Nama boshi, soft (half-dried), dried for one day or so

The label says, "Hon gawaki" (fully dried). I guess this is synonymous with "hon boshi".
ラベルには「本乾」（ほんがわき）と書かれています。「本干」（ほんぼし）と同義だと思います。

Fully dried migaki nishin must be soaked in "kome no togi jiru" (milky water resulting from washing uncooked rice) overnight or longer. If you don't have kome no togi jiru available, use water plus some rice bran instead.
本干しの身欠きにしんは、米のとぎ汁に一晩以上漬ける必要があります。米のとぎ汁がない場合は、米ぬかを少し入れた水を使います。

Kome no togi jiru has some rice bran in it, and rice bran has the effect of removing lipid peroxides.

米のとぎ汁には、米ぬかが少し含まれており、米ぬかには過酸化脂質を除去する効果があります。

Migaki nishin, soaked overnight.

一晩漬けた身欠きにしん。

This morning, I checked the migaki nishin. I was a little worried that they might go bad due to the hot weather, and I was relieved to find that they seemed OK. I wanted to keep soaking them in the water until the evening, but because of the hot weather, I decided to put them in the fridge.
今朝、身欠きにしんをチェックしました。暑さのせいで腐らないかと心配しましたが、大丈夫そうで、安心しました。夕方まで漬けたままにしたかったのですが、暑さのため、冷蔵庫に入れることにしました。

Migaki nishin at around 4:00 p.m.

午後４時頃の身欠きにしん。

Some recipes say to simmer them in bancha (coarse tea) to remove aku (harshness) and odor. I found one recipe that says to simmer in the kome no togijiru used for soaking, and I decided to follow this step. This particular recipe says to simmer them for one hour, but I simply simmered for 30 minutes or so, while I was making potato salad and making preparations for nimono ingredients.
番茶で煮て、灰汁（あく）と臭みを取ると書いてあるレシピもありますが、漬けるのに使った米のとぎ汁で煮ると書かれているレシピを見つけたので、それに従うことにしました。このレシピでは１時間煮ると書かれていますが、私は単にポテトサラダを作ったり、煮物の材料を準備したりしている間、30分程度煮ました。

2 comments:

The world of food is amazing... Half of my life 99% of the fish I had was herring (pickled in various ways) and yet, I have never even heard of dried herring. Not to mention eating it. I had no idea dried herring existed in Japan.I like dried and salted cod a lot (Portuguese speciality, though it exists also in other countries in the world, for example French overseas territories), but of course it's completely different.